Appropriators (Finally) Complete Their Work, Send Omnibus to House Floor

Appropriators achieved Monday what seemed like an impossible task, crafting an omnibus spending bill that includes even the most contentious of the 12 subcommittee measures.

In recent years, the idea of moving a spending bill funding departments like Health and Human Services and the Environmental Protection Agency through the divided Congress has seemed at times laughable. With a product in hand, now the time comes for the panel’s leaders to sell the measure, which would fund the discretionary parts of the government through the end of September.

“The agreement includes the work of all of our Subcommittee Chairs and Ranking Members — in total, nearly 50 Members of the House and Senate, an equal number of Democrats and Republicans,” Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Barbara A. Mikulski said in a statement. “It is truly a bipartisan agreement that a significant number of Members worked day and night over the holidays, and I thank them all for their dedication.”

The top-line total of $1.012 trillion was set by the earlier budgetary agreement between House Budget Chairman Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate counterpart Patty Murray, D-Wash.

Speaking with reporters earlier in the evening, Mikulski noted the roughly 134 policy riders that she and House Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., needed to resolve.

“You know what some of those riders are, and if you look at the website you’ll see. There’s no new abortion riders,” she said.

“The Omnibus will fulfill the basic duty of Congress; it provides funding for every aspect of the federal government, from our national defense, to our transportation systems, to the education of our kids,” Rogers said in his own statement. “The bill reflects careful decisions to realign the nation’s funding priorities and target precious tax dollars to important programs where they are needed the most. At the same time, the legislation will continue the downward trend in federal spending to put our nation on a sustainable fiscal path.”

The agreement is being carried on a legislative vehicle that will allow for expedited consideration on both sides of the Rotunda. Most notably, only one debate-limiting cloture vote could be required to overcome procedural delays in the Senate. Since the measure’s expected to reach the House floor Wednesday, the timing is right to get the measure to President Barack Obama’s desk by week’s end.

The deal reverses a portion of the military benefit changes in the Murray-Ryan budget agreement, carving out an exemption to prevent cuts in benefits for disabled veterans and their families.

Rogers has introduced a three-day continuing resolution to keep the government up and running while the Senate works through procedural machinations. Unless a senator launches an objection to that measure, there’s no reason to expect a shutdown at this point. House Republicans are due to be briefed on the agreement Tuesday.

Nonetheless, as with any 1,582-page spending bill, the package includes no shortage of interesting provisions that will get more attention as lawmakers and the public have time to read through it.

It also would maintain funding of $16.7 million for the East-West Center, which is a cultural exchange center located in Hawaii. The project was a favorite of late Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel K. Inouye.

A summary provided by the House Appropriations Committee notes the measure would block, among other things, enforcement of new standards on light bulbs. However, an aide to Mikulski said that a number of controversial riders in the portion of the bill funding the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency were left by the wayside.

The bill also would set a pay freeze for senior administration officials, including the vice president.

Mikulski, who counts many federal workers among her Maryland constituency, worked to provide most federal workers with the first cost-of-living adjustment in years, which took effect this month.

There are also a number of familiar riders, including one barring federal funding of abortions in most circumstances and another blocking the construction of facilities to imprison detainees currently held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

“$60,000,000 shall be used for breastfeeding peer counselors”!
Well, the Dems paid off those who supported their fake “War on Women” meme very well.

stafford123

Idiot. This is all about promoting breastfeeding in WIC, which reduces the use of infant formula, which improves infant health while helping control program costs. A comment based on an incomplete understanding is of no value.

MrSmith

I ‘understand’, unlike you, that there are good reasons women use formula. Which of them does this change?
None.

So it won’t do as you say and you know it.
You just want the money.

Defend The Constitution

While it sounds cynical to say that the affluent provide a service by trying new things, the same service would be required under socialism.

Professor_Fate

These omnibus bills are nothing more than a way for Congress to continue to hide the profligate waste of taxpayer dollars. They create a bill that is almost 1600 pages long, then allow only two days before a vote. By dumping everything into this one huge stinking pot, then setting it up in an “all or nothing” vote, they prevent any meaningful debate on any single provision therein. Basing the spending levels on a “budget deal” that is essentially the equivalent of the Popeye character Wimpy declaiming “I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today” is just adding insult to injury. We know the promised “spending cuts”, which are really nothing more than miniscule reductions in the rate of increase of government spending, will never materialize.

Ocean Sprayz

Except in rare instances, such as military bravery in defense of liberty, merit is incompatible with liberty because merit requires that each of us be subjectively judged by those who hold coercive power over us.

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About #WGDB

Niels Lesniewski has covered the Senate for CQ Roll Call since January 2010, and more recently as a staff writer and resident procedure guru for Roll Call. Niels holds degrees in both government and theater but sometimes can't tell the difference between the two. @nielslesniewski